Purity culture’s own architects later conceded it caused harm

Evidence

Those who had saved sex (and even kissing) for marriage discovered that marriage—and marital sex—didn’t always live up to expectations. Many came to reject the culture of shame and blame. Women including Sarah Bessey, Dianna Anderson, Samantha Field, Linda Kay Klein, Libby Anne, and groups such as Homeschoolers Anonymous began to expose the damage they experienced or observed within the confines of purity culture. Twenty years after the publication of I Kissed Dating Goodbye, Josh Harris acknowledged that he hadn’t really known what he was talking about. He asked his publisher for the book to be withdrawn. “When we try to overly control our own lives or overly control other people’s lives, I think we end up harming people,” he conceded. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 684

Categorization

• SEED: A possible essay angle: ‘the author as apostate’ — how creators of cultural artifacts (purity books, masculinity training) later recant, and what that does to the artifact’s authority.